


call it home

by maybesandsomedays



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, the neverending scroll call au, these two just really like to talk to each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 19:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15892554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybesandsomedays/pseuds/maybesandsomedays
Summary: There had never been a reason why they had started, really.They had simply been talking on their scrolls one day and when they bumped into each other, both of them had forgotten to hang up their call.“Haha, hey Blake, looks like we never hung up,” Yang calls down to the lower bunk later that night before bed.Blake’s response is so quiet Yang can only barely hear it through the phone.“Let’s not.”—Or, in which Blake and Yang have a continuous call going at all times throughout their relationship.





	call it home

**Author's Note:**

> Remember that time that Barbara was talking about the joke theory that Blake and Yang are on a call they never hang up from and that's why when Blake lifts up her scroll Yang's just already on it? Yeah. Here it is.
> 
> Unbelievably huge, huge thanks to Ray, who was honestly such a huge help in the writing and editing of this fic that I should probably just list her as a coauthor. I couldn't have done it without you and I'm surprised you don't hate this fic by this point.

There had never been a reason why they had started, really.

They had simply been talking on their scrolls one day and when they bumped into each other, both of them had forgotten to hang up their call.

“Haha, hey Blake, looks like we never hung up,” Yang calls down to the lower bunk later that night before bed.

Blake’s response is so quiet Yang can only barely hear it through the phone.

“Let’s not.”

* * *

“Miss Xiao Long! I will have to ask you to please put away your scroll!” Professor Port booms out, catching Yang with her fingers tapping out a message.

“I can’t!” Yang bursts out quickly, her heart stopping at the idea of even temporarily ending her connection to Blake.

“What do you mean you can’t? I’m told it’s easy to hang up one of those things, but I can never figure it out. I’m sure you young folks know how to do it though!”

“It’s Blake! You know, my partner! She’s, uh…she’s listening to your stories! She just likes hearing them, so I put her on call!”

“You were talking about when an Ursa almost ripped off your mustache,” Blake says flatly through the scroll that Yang had just set to speaker mode while she was fumbling through her lie of an explanation.

Professor Port preens. “Well, I suppose if Miss Belladonna enjoys my class that much, it’s alright then! Continue your call, ladies. And you’re welcome to listen in any time.”

Yang breathes out a sigh of relief when he launches directly back into his tale of defeating the Ursa by supplying it with a fake mustache of its own without missing a beat.

As discreetly as she can, Yang slips her scroll under her desk and switches to the texting app while leaving the call running in the background. Class is almost over, but she needs to talk to Blake now. Her arm twitches, her whole body seems to vibrate, she yearns to talk to Blake so desperately that she thinks that if she has to wait she’ll explode.

 _[Yang Xiao Long]_  
_how did you know that? i didn’t even know what his story was and i’m sitting right here_

 _[Blake Belladonna]_  
_it’s all about listening, yang._

 _[Blake Belladonna]_  
_also he’s told that story five times already. i heard it again this morning_

 _[Blake Belladonna]_  
_and that was just when i ran into him in the hallway_

 _[Yang Xiao Long]_  
_and here i was worried that you were paying attention to him instead of me. i’m relieved to know you find what i’m saying more interesting than professor port at least_

 _[Blake Belladonna]_  
_i find what you say more interesting than what a lot of people have to say_

Yang has to stop for a moment and process the words in front of her. Blake found her interesting? It made sense, sure—she did talk to her this much—but the words still stick with her.

Blake finds her interesting.

It’s all she can do to suppress the huge grin that wants to shine through on her face. She doesn’t want Professor Port catching her texting or worse, thinking the smile is for his story.

 _[Yang Xiao Long]_  
_aww blakey, you find me interesting? <3_

She can hear Blake’s voice, distantly, as well as Ruby’s and Weiss’s, but she can’t make out what any of them are saying, not when she can’t even have the scroll on speaker anymore.

When the bell rings to let her out of class seconds later, she immediately raises the scroll to her ear and continues the text conversation. “I guess you do have a heart under all that brooding, don’t you?” she teases.

“I guess I do have a heart,” Blake says, amused. “Maybe even a soft spot.”

Yang has no idea how to respond.

There’s a beat, and then, “Underneath all the brooding, of course.” She can hear the smile in Blake’s voice.

She grins back. “Underneath _all_ of that brooding. So much brooding. I didn’t even know a person could brood that much.”

“I like to brood about the heart I just might have.”

“That’s the broodiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

She can tell Blake’s smile has gotten even bigger. “Shut up, Yang.”

“Why would I do that? You said yourself that you find what I have to say interesting,” Yang teases.

“I suppose I did say that, didn’t I,” Blake says softly, and the whole tone changes. Every bit of teasing is gone, the words sincere and filled with fondness. Yang’s breath catches in her throat and the teasing reply she’d had prepared trips over her tongue.

“You can’t hide it anymore. You like when I talk,” she finally replies.

“I was never trying to hide that.”

Yang stops dead in her tracks, blinking in shock.

She swears Blake’s confessions are going to give her a heart attack today.

She’s snapped out of her stupor by the person who’d been walking behind her, who crashes into her and angrily scolds her, “Hey, watch it!” She calls a “sorry” at their retreating back and returns her attention to Blake.

“Yang?” Blake is saying. “Are you there? Are you okay?”

“Oh, um, yeah! I’m here, I’m good!” Yang cringes at how ridiculous she comes across, and tries to steer the conversation back before Blake notices.

“I think you’re interesting too, Blake,” she admits, followed by a lot of static and a thud and more static. “Blake?”

“Sorry!” Blake says in a rush, sounding out of breath. “I—I dropped the phone.”

“So flustered by me you’re dropping phones now?”

“Uh,” is what comes out of Blake’s mouth. “Ruby knocked into me?”

“I did no such thing!” Ruby cries indignantly in the background.

Yang’s heart jumps in her chest despite herself.

Yang opens the door to their dorm then, where she finds Blake curled up on her bed with a book, her scroll by her ear. Blake wordlessly holds up the scroll and raises her eyebrows slightly when she sees Yang, asking a question Yang knows. Yang nods, and Blake presses end on the call.

After a quick hello to Ruby and Weiss talking about cakes on their side of the room, Yang takes one of Blake’s books and sits on the floor with her back against Blake’s bed.

“Hey, I didn’t know you were into such filth, Blake.”

“I changed my mind.” Blake’s eyes glitter mischievously and she lowers her book to smirk down at Yang. “I do want you to shut up.”

“Too late for that.”

* * *

“Blake, are you okay? Why aren’t you answering your scroll? Why did you even hang up?”

“Blake, please. I’m getting worried. We’ve never gone this long. Is something wrong? Did I do something? Are you in trouble?”

“Blake, I’m begging you, please pick up. I’ve been looking all over for you. You’re scaring me. You didn’t go after the White Fang by yourself, did you?”

“Blake, you don’t have to talk to me. Please just...let me know if you’re alive.”

Blake closes her eyes as she listens to the voicemails in succession. Her eyes, dry and puffy because they haven’t been closed in so long, thank her for it, but she forces them back open. She hasn’t even looked at the texts yet.

In each of the first messages, she can hear Yang’s increasing franticness and worry. But the last one is the worst. That’s the one that cuts right through Blake’s chest and makes her heart hurt. In that one, Yang just sounds defeated and heartbroken, the worry still laced underneath. In that one, her voice has cracked and Blake’s pretty sure Yang is crying.

All because Blake had hung up their call.

She should have known, she thinks. The call was nearly sacred. They didn’t hang up without agreeing to it. Of course Yang would worry if she ended it. She had just thought that she didn’t have time with the White Fang out gearing up to do who knows what. Yang would distract her from the White Fang, she knew that.

She presses Yang’s speed-dial and watches as Yang’s face pops up on her screen, even as she leaves her own camera off. The image is blurry and Blake finds that she can’t focus her eyes anywhere on the screen. She blinks a few times and Yang’s image is slightly clearer, but the edges of her vision are still hazy.

“Blake!” Yang cries, and the relief in her voice and on her face (mixed with the tear stains that Blake can see even with the terrible quality of a scroll camera and the bluriness from her own exhaustion) is palpable and raw and _real_ and it makes Blake cringe, and it makes tears of her own come into her eyes because Yang _cares_ so much about her that it makes her ache.

“Blake?” Yang tries again after Blake doesn’t respond. Blake starts at the sound of her name, realizes she had zoned out in those few seconds.

“I’m sorry,” Blake whispers, and she leaves the call open. Yang doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t need to.

It’s still going and accidentally left on her desk a few hours later when she follows the dot of a pesky laser pointer through the hallway.

* * *

“I’m glad you’re asleep. You needed it. Watch over Ruby and Weiss for me, okay?” Yang sits back against the wall for her turn for watch, scratching Zwei’s ears.

She can hear Blake’s soft breathing through the phone. She could picture exactly where Blake had it by her ear, her hand probably resting on it.

Yang continues speaking in a quiet voice. “You don’t usually fall asleep on me. It’s okay, though. You’re cute when you’re asleep, you know that? You always look peaceful. I wish I could get you to look that at ease in the daytime.”

Zwei lets out a small bark and Yang laughs. “I think Zwei agrees with me.”

She gets softer again. “I’m glad I’m waking Weiss up next and not you. Then we can sleep together. It’s usually the other way around for us, isn’t it? Usually I zonk out on you but I get to see you wake up in the morning.”

Yang lets out a long, contented sigh, scanning the scenery around her. “I’ll see you soon, Blake. But I’ll keep talking until then, alright? I hope only you can hear this. If I keep Weiss up she’ll kill me.”

* * *

Grimm by the hundreds race around Blake and Weiss, leaving chaos and destruction in their wake. Blake doesn’t know how to take it all in.

“I don’t believe this,” Weiss says softly, but Blake hardly hears her as she pulls her scroll out to see Yang’s face.

“Yang, are you okay?” she asks desperately.

When by the end of the conversation, all she can hear is Yang fighting, she wants to stay on the line with her, but Yang says she has to go.

“Stay safe, okay?” Yang says, and the call is ended. Blake knows she has to go after the White Fang herself.

“Blake? What are we going to do?” Weiss asks.

“We’re going to the docks, and we’re doing our job.”

She won’t be able to breathe again until she sees Yang safe and unharmed by the White Fang.

* * *

When Yang wakes up, confused and disoriented, in a hospital room, and the memories flood back to her, her first instinct is to reach for her scroll and check on Blake.

She reaches out with her right arm, and grows increasingly frustrated as she can’t seem to get it to do what she wants, and drops it again as the fact that her _arm_ is gone hits her.

Fear grips her heart as she wonders if that’s what happened to her, what happened to her friends? What happened after she charged at the guy hurting Blake?

She starts to carefully navigate through the tubes connected to her to grab her scroll with her left hand instead.

The call with Blake isn’t there.

She calls her, and there’s no answer. She frowns and tries again. Still nothing.

“You’re awake!”

Yang starts out of surprise. “Sun?”

“The one and only!” Sun walks into the room, grabs a nearby chair with his tail, and pulls it up to Yang’s bedside. “I was just walking by and I happened to see you.”

“What are you doing here? Where’s everyone else?”

“Ruby’s at your house with your dad. It’s the only time she’s left, actually—he dragged her home for a shower. He had to wait until she was asleep.”

Yang smiles for the first time. “I’m glad she’s safe,” she says, and something in her chest feels a little lighter knowing that her sister is okay.

“Weiss’s dad also came and he took her back to Atlas.”

He stops. Hesitates.

“And…Blake?” Yang prompts. There’s something else he’s not saying, and his hesitation makes a pit start to grow nervously in Yang’s stomach. “She’s not picking up her scroll. Is she here?”

“Yang, I don’t know how to tell you this—”

Yang swears the whole world both stops and speeds up in that instant. Her head starts to spin and she gasps, staring at Sun in sheer terror, and her breathing starts catching until she feels like she can’t get in any more air and she certainly can’t get out the words caught in her throat, voice the thoughts racing around in her head and filling her with panic. She finally forces out the words all in a rush before she can go further.

“Sun! What happened to her, she’s not answering—she never—not since—there was someone….he was attacking her, I tried to stop him, I wanted to protect her! I need to know if she’s okay, right, she’s not—” Yang cuts herself off. She won’t say it out loud. She _can’t_ say it out loud. “He didn’t…”

“No! No, nothing like that,” Sun says quickly as soon as Yang lets him get a word in. “No, she’s alive.”

A wave of instant relief washes over her, followed by another thought setting in. “Well, then where is she?”

Sun sighs. “She…she left, Yang. Blake’s gone.”

“She left?” Yang blinks, almost laughing in disbelief. “What do you mean she left? With my dad and Ruby? With Weiss?”

Sun swallows, hesitates again. “She ran away. After the battle. She ran away.”

Yang’s face collapses and hot tears threaten to prick at the corners of her eyes.

“She has to pick up our call though, doesn’t she? That’s what we do. She has to pick up, Sun!”

“I—I don’t know. I’m sorry,” Sun stammers.

Yang sighs heavily. “Just go.”

“I’ll find her.”

Not knowing what else to do, Sun clambers through the open window and behind him he can hear Yang start to heave in sobs.

She calls Blake one more time. There’s no answer.

* * *

Blake sees all three times Yang calls. _At least she’s awake_ , she thinks.

She stares at her scroll as a picture of Yang fills her screen, one she had taken one night when it had been just the two of them, talking and laughing. It had been the loosest Blake could remember feeling in a long time, and a trick of the light had made Yang seem suddenly radiant. She asked her not to move for the picture, and Yang didn’t, except to make the goofiest face she possibly could.

It was Blake’s favorite picture she had ever taken. It used to make her happy every time she looked at it.

Now, it only fills her with regret.

It takes all of her willpower to not answer Yang’s calls, each one getting harder than the last. She wants more than anything to pick up the call, to tell her _I’m sorry_ and _I’m coming home_ , but she reminds herself that being there would only put Yang in more danger. She wouldn’t do that to her, not again. Not when she’d already made that mistake once.

She does break down at one point, later, and call Yang from a pay phone. Yang says “Hello?” and Blake hangs up.

* * *

 “Ruby?” Yang yells through the house they’re staying in, scanning around. “Ruby, are you in here?” She startles when Jaune appears instead.

“She’s training with Oscar,” he informs her, and pauses, thinking. “Or Ozpin. Or...both. Nora might be there too? I’m not really sure.”

“Well, will you call Blake for me then?” Yang asks.

Jaune reaches into his pocket for his scroll. “Sure thing! You two still avoiding directly calling each other at all costs, I take it,” he says casually as he thumbs through to Blake’s number.

Yang glares at him. “I don’t know what you mean,” she says cooly.

“Well, you and Blake haven’t called each other since she came back,” Jaune says. “You always ask Ruby to do it, and she always asks Weiss, and Weiss always grumbles about it. What’s going on with you two, anyway?”

“We’re fine,” Yang nearly snaps at him, but then she softens. “We just—it’s hard, you know? I know why she left but it’s hard to believe she won’t leave again.”

Jaune opens his mouth to respond, but Yang keeps talking. “And I keep thinking that if she does then I should use this time with her now because I like having her here! But I know how this works, I’m just setting myself up to lose her again.”

“Uh, what was it that you wanted me to call Blake about again?”

Yang blinks out of her outburst. “Huh? Oh, it’s just—oh, forget it.” She stalks off through the house.

* * *

Blake is the one who calls first.

“Hey Blake?” Yang says at the end.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s not hang up.”


End file.
